Chapter 2.

Emma's hands hesitated when she arrived at the apartment. She took a deep breath and walked in. With the sound of the door opening Mary Margaret turned and walked up to her daughter, hugging her.

"Um…okay," Emma said a little confused by the hug. "What's going on?"

Mary Margaret pulled back and David walked up to the two of them. "Where have you been," Mary Margaret asked.

"I was with Neal," Emma said as if that explained everything.

Mary Margaret looked at David and then back at Emma, "All night and straight on till noon?"

Emma knew what her mother was asking but she didn't let on. "Yeah," Emma said casually.

Before Mary Margaret could ask her eyes were drawn down to the swan necklace.

"Wow," said Mary Margaret, "I haven't seen that in a while."

Emma's hand automatically went up to the swan. She let out a half smile, "Neal returned it. I kind of gave it back to him when we were in New York."

"Oh," Mary Margaret said with a simple nod now understanding that her necklace had a strong signficiance and then asked, "So what did you two do?"

Emma groaned, "Are we really going to do this now?"

"Snow," David said almost scolding, "Our daughter is a grown woman."

"I know," she said to him and then turned to Emma, "but we used to talk about things like this before remember?"

"That was before I knew you were my mom," Emma complained.

"True," said Mary Margaret, "but we missed out on that part of your growing up."

Emma took a seat at the table unsure if she wanted to hear this. She felt like she was a kid again getting the sex talk for the first time.

"You don't have to explain it to me. I know how sex works, I know where babies come from I did have one."

David and Mary Margaret tried to stifle their laughs as they came over and took a seat at the table with Emma.

"So you two did-," Mary Margaret said not adding to it.

Emma placed her head in her hands feeling slightly embarrassed. It had been one thing to talk to Mary Margaret about this sort of thing when she was under the curse and the two had been close friends but this was a whole new level of discomfort, even different when she caught her parents in bed together after she and Henry came home from the grocery store.

"We thought you were just going there to comfort him," David said. He wasn't confused about how it happened or even the where or why. He was confused about the intentions. David turned serious, "He didn't take advantage of you did he?"

Emma looked up at him. She tried to repress her smile. No matter the age and no matter how much David tried to give Emma her space he couldn't help but be a concerned father when it came to his daughters' virtue.

"Of course not," Emma said hoping that was enough to ease his worry but it wasn't enough to ease Mary Margaret's.

"So what exactly did happen?"

Again Emma placed her head in her hands trying to hold back her laugh. She figured at this point she might as well tell her parents everything without serious detail and it's not like she would be able to keep her engagement a secret for long since it was a small town.

She got up from the table and went to the kitchen pulling down a glass to get a drink of water. She chugged it all. Emma didn't know how to do this. It was awkward enough hinting to her parents that she had sex with Neal. Life before her parents had been so different. She didn't have to answer to anyone, she didn't have to blush when it came to her personal life and on the seldom people she did talk to she was always a wall that no one could smash through.

Emma took a deep breath and then looked at her parents. "Neal asked me to marry him."

There was a wave of silence. If Archie had been a cricket he would be the only one making a sound.

"He what," asked David.

"What did you say," asked Mary Margaret.

Emma looked down at the pendant, her fingers making their way to it. It had been so long since she had worn it. She never admitted it but in the time since she parted ways it had left a void that she wasn't used to. Now it was in its rightful place where it belonged.

Emma looked up at her parents, "I said yes."

Mary Margaret and David looked at each other and smiled. They were beyond thrilled that their daughter had found her happy ending. She genuinely had a chance at that now but as happy as they were for Emma at the same time they were also concerned. Neal had just lost his father and Emma still had a lot of anger toward Neal.

"Emma, you know we want you to be happy," said David, "but is this really the best thing for you right now? I mean less than a week ago you were telling us how pissed off at him you were and now his father just died. It just seems like you're both looking for something in the midst of everything that's going on."

"I know it sounds crazy believe me I know we even had a talk about it."

"And," asked Mary Margaret.

"You two are always telling me to look for the good moments in between all the bad ones and that's kind of what happened last night," Emma said walking around and leaning with her back against the counter. "Yes I'm still pissed at Neal but ever since New York I knew that my love for him never went away and then when I saw the dream catcher I knew he never stopped loving me either."

"Dream catcher," Mary Margaret asked not understanding.

Emma looked down at smiled, "It was just something we stole along the way when we were together."

David glanced down at his wife. They knew that Emma hadn't had the easiest life but they didn't know how far that extended. They knew that she had a rough time in the foster system but beyond that they knew nothing about her, they didn't even know much about her personal experiences while she was in the system. Emma kept a lot of her life before Storybrooke pretty close to the vest. By the look of the smile on her face, they gathered that Neal was one of the few good things in her life.

They remained silent and let Emma continue, "I can be pissed at him all I want but it won't change what happened to me or what he did." She glanced up at her parents, "Maybe some of that optimism is rubbing off on me but I do believe Neal and I can make this work despite everything that's happened. I want that more than anything. There's a lot we need to work out but we can do it."

Mary Margaret was trying hard to hold back her tears. She took Emma's hands in hers, "I believe you can," she said giving the hands a squeeze.

Emma was glad to have her mother's blessing. She looked up at her father and waited. She didn't have to wait long as he came and hugged her, kissing her on her head. As he did that Emma closed her eyes and accepted it. Ever since they were reunited as a family David always kissed her head when they embraced. At first she wasn't sure how to feel about it but over the short time period his kisses became a sort of comfort and now it meant that she had his blessing not that she needed it, it was just nice to have.

"Congratulations Emma," David whispered in her ear.

As the two continued for another minute in their embrace there was a knock at the door. They weren't expecting anyone but Emma went to answer it.

At the door Neal stood there with a huge grin on his face.